Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress

Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress (German: Sissi – Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin) is a 1957 film directed by Ernst Marischka and starring Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm, Magda Schneider, Uta Franz, Gustav Knuth, Vilma Degischer and Josef Meinrad. Third of a trilogy of romantic films about the Austrian Princess Sisi, it was entered into the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. ^[1]

Plot

The Austrian empress enjoys travelling through Hungary, where she ultimately finds the politically priceless affection of local Count Andrássy too intimate. But this is only temporary relief from the frustrations of court life in Vienna, where dutiful Franz remains chained to his desk and leaves his chillingly strict mother Sophie interfering, even in the upbringing of their daughter, Gisella. When Sissi is diagnosed with possibly fatal tuberculosis and Franz has to allow Sophie to remove their daughter on doctor's warning, Sissi is in danger of losing the will to live while exiled to recovery-inducing climates (Portuguese Madeira and Greek Corfu). Then desperately needed psychosomatic therapy appears in the form of her indestructibly positive mother Ludovika. She lovingly nurses both her sickness and her taste for life on idyllic walks. Once again Oberst Böckl, the clumsy body-guard whose doting admiration for the empress borders on the improper, provides a comical note, as each time Sissi moves to a new country he struggles with the local language and falls in love with his private teacher. Finally Sissi is well enough to rejoin her husband on an official visit to Venice, part of Austria's remaining possessions in Northern Italy, where nationalists prepare the Habsburg sovereigns a hostile welcome which may even start a violent uprising; but the emotional Italians melt for the ostentatiously loving reunion of Sissi and her little daughter on St Mark's Square.

Starring

• Romy Schneider — Empress Elisabeth of Austria, called Sissi
• Karlheinz Böhm — Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
• Magda Schneider — Duchess Ludovika of Bavaria, Sissi's mother
• Gustav Knuth — Duke Max of Bavaria, Sissi's father
• Uta Franz — Princess Helene of Bavaria, called Nené, Sissi's older sister
• Walter Reyer — Graf Andrássy
• Vilma Degischer — Archduchess Sophie, Franz Joseph's mother
• Josef Meinrad — Oberst Böckl
• Erich Nikowitz — Archduke Franz Karl, Franz Joseph's father

References

External links

• Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Site (German)